Whether you’re part of our Writing Matters team or just someone with an interest in story, I can’t recommend this event highly enough.

Nick is a great speaker and extremely knowledgeable about all things publishing and writing. He has edited two books that made the Booker list – I’m not sure but I’d say he’s probably the only UK editor to have done that.

He will be at the Sydney Cooper Centre in Canterbury on Thursday October 13th (6pm) as the first of Christchurch University’s Writing Comes Alive season.

Jennifer Egan’s amazing book ‘A Visit from the Goon Squad’ is very high in my list of all-time favourites. It won the Pulitzer prize for Fiction in 2011 and – if you read it – you’ll see why. It’s a great example of how, despite there being so many authors and so many books, you can still be dazzlingly original in your structure and style.

In this article, Egan gives some great writing advice. It is always worth listening to what experienced writers have to say – it can give you confidence in those quiet ‘incubating’ phases or help you to trust yourself as the words fall on to the page in periods of great output. You can read what Egan says here.